SAN FRANCISCO — Senior
Ranier Plantinos dished out an assist and found the back of the net twice en route to San Francisco State's 4-2 victory over Cal State San Bernardino on Sunday at Cox Stadium.
"The last four or five games, we've been dangerous up front but haven't been able to capitalize," said San Francisco State Head Coach
Javier Ayala-Hil. "We know we have good attacking players and it was only a matter of time where they were going to start scoring again. The games are tight, the pressure's high, and they showed up today in big moments. It was great to see."
SF State (9-4-2/4-4-2) went up 1-0 in the seventh minute on a highlight-reel goal from the Gator's offense. Plantinos took the ball from past midfield and dribbled through traffic, all the way into the box, then passed to sophomore
Richard Leon on the wing. Leon connected with his left foot and bent his shot to the far post into the top left of the net.
The Coyotes (7-8-1/5-5-1 CCAA) scored the equalizer in the 24th minute on Danny Ortiz's point-blank shot to the left off of the assist by Christian Vega. The two teams headed into halftime knotted at 1-1 but the Gators quickly regained the advantage. In the 48th minute, the Coyotes committed a foul in the box which set up an SF State penalty kick.
Tariq Pulskamp finished to his left and the Gators led 2-1.
The Gators wasted little time scoring again. In the 50th minute,
Aydan Bowers took the ball for the throw-in on the left side and connected with Plantinos for the header and Plantinos' team-leading 10th goal of the season.
In the 75th minute, Plantinos scored on another header, this time on
Brandon Brunac's free kick on the left side. Brunac placed the ball in the center of the box and Plantinos came flying in from the right side for his second goal of the day and his 11th goal of the season.
A momentary lapse at the defensive end led to a second Coyotes goal in the 88th minute.
SF State now has 14 points in the standings with two matches to go. However, a wrinkle has been thrown into the standings. With the cancellation of soccer matches impacted by the recent wildfires in Northern California, the CCAA will use the average points per match to determine final seeding.
The Gators host Humboldt State (8-7-0/5-6-0 CCAA) in a crucial matchup on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 12:30 p.m. Live video and stats will be available at
sfstategators.com. In-game updates will be available on Twitter at
@sfstate_msoc.
